The Griffon
by Glamourcat
Summary: Z/G Pairing: A young man must go on a quest to save the object of his love.


Title: The Griffon  
  
Author: Glamourcat  
  
E-mail: Glamourcat@lycos.com  
  
Part: 1/1  
  
Warnings: Male/male pairing, but it's not like you didn't know that.  
  
Disclaimer: The Slayers characters aren't mine. In fact they belong to Hajime Kanzaka, Rui Araizumi, Kadokawa Shoten, TV TOKYO, SOFTX and Marubeni  
  
Summary: A young man must go on a quest to save the object of his love.  
  
Distribution: For LN and anyone else who wants it as long as they ask me so I know where it's being posted.  
  
Notes: This is an old obscure fairy tale and follows its original form more then being fractured.  
  
In a far distant country, lived a very rich king who had only one daughter.  
  
The princess was very beautiful (or at least that's what her father paid his messengers to spread around the kingdom), but, sadly, she suffered from an incurable illness that had kept her confined to her bed for many years.  
  
Well-known doctors of many lands tried to cure her but none succeeded, much to the relief of the surrounding towns who remembered what she was like before she fell ill.  
  
One find day, a mazoku arrived in the land and asked to speak to the king. At first the king wouldn't even speak to such an evil being, but desperate for knowledge of a cure for his daughter he finally agreed.  
  
"To cure the princess," he revealed in a mysterious voice, "you need an apple!"  
  
The king asked the mazoku where such a magic apple could be found but the mazoku declined to say answering only.  
  
"That is a secret!"  
  
The very next morning, with great beating of drums and blowing of trumpets and other displays of the king's wealth and power, the heralds of the court proclaimed a royal edict.  
  
"By order of the king, the man who brings to the court the magical apple which has the power to cure the princess will be granted the honor of her hand in marriage!"  
  
Now, knowing the arrogance and strange behaviors of the princess before she fell sick, the townspeople thought that being stuck married to her would be more punishment then reward and they all told the heralds to get stuffed. So the heralds went back and told their king that no one would quest for the magic apple.  
  
After thinking long and hard, a task difficult for the king, his advisor the Red Priest, finally suggested that he offer free food for a lifetime as a reward for curing the princess. The king, though slightly perturbed at the insult to his beloved daughter (whom his friends thought he was much too close to), he agreed and sent his heralds out once more.  
  
Not many of the townspeople received this edict with much enthusiasm either but Gourry, a young peasant who lived on a nearby farm, heard the king's degree and thought that free food for a lifetime would be a very good thing indeed.  
  
Gourry, being a young peasant who worked in the fields all day wearing scantly anything, had as his only possession a tree that produced the roundest, reddest, juiciest apples in the world.  
  
Gourry figured it couldn't hurt to try so he filled a basket to the brim with his apples and set out for the palace.  
  
A little way down the road, he met a man dressed in white with a long white cape.  
  
"What do you have in that basket?" asked the man.  
  
"These are the apples that are going to cure the princess!"  
  
"Well then, so be it!" replied the man and he disappeared.  
  
Figuring that white clad men normally did such mysterious things Gourry continued on his way.  
  
As soon as he arrived at the palace, the young peasant had the basket of apples taken to the king's daughter.  
  
The princess received the present with joy and, choosing one of the apples, started to eat it hungrily.  
  
She had hardly swallowed the last mouthful when magically she leaped out of bed and struck a pose with one foot up on a chair and her left hand raised in a victory v. She was completely cured.  
  
At first, the relief and happiness of the king and his daughter knew no bounds, which caused the loyal advisor the Red Priest to make disparaging comments until they controlled themselves. When the initial wave of enthusiasm had passed, the king declared a feast in the young man's honor.  
  
During the feast the king grew slowly horrified at how much the simple farmer Gourry could consume in a single sitting. Seeing himself go bankrupt trying to feed this man for the rest of his life he tried to get out of his promise.  
  
So he said to the young man, "If you truly wish to earn your free food, you must take a these hundred rabbits out to pasture and bring them all back at the end of the day. Otherwise you must give up the idea of being spoiled with good food for the rest of your life."  
  
"But Daddy, I thought you offered him my hand in marriage if I was cured?" the princess asked.  
  
"That was before, this is now," the king answered.  
  
Gourry, being a courageous lad, and so much more interested in the food then the princess agreed to this test.  
  
The next day, he set off early in the morning with the hundred white rabbits, but as soon as he reached the field they scampered off in a hundred different directions.  
  
The young man despaired, lowering his head and letting his long blond hair drape itself over his chest. How was he going to get them all back to the palace that evening? His stomach growled in thought of the food it would not be getting that night.  
  
Suddenly, the man in white appeared, and Gourry was very happy to see him again, especially since he'd noticed what nice eyes the man had. The mysterious man gave him a small magic whistle (please note that I'm talking about an actual musical instrument and not anything else).  
  
Gourry put the whistle to his lips and blew. All the rabbits reappeared and ran to sit at his feet. Turning to thank the other man, Gourry saw that he had vanished.  
  
As dusk fell, a very disgruntled king saw the young man return with every single one of the hundred rabbits.  
  
He was forced to feed him again, causing half his palace cooks to quit on the spot.  
  
Disparaging, the king said, "You may have your free food, but only on one condition. You must build a boat that can sail over land as well as over water!"  
  
Gourry walked back to his village racking his brain to figure out how he could possibly satisfy the absurd demand of the king. This made his head hurt so he took a nap instead.  
  
Upon waking, his stomach growled and reminded him that he did have a job to complete. So once again, taking his courage in both hands (now stop that you sick people), he set himself to his task.  
  
He'd been working for a while and the boat was almost done when the mysterious figure in white appeared once more. Half expecting him this time Gourry worked on in silence wondering just what the other man was staring at so intently.  
  
After a moment the strange man said, "You seem to have taken on some task there! Do you think you'll be able to do it? And by the way, what exactly IS it you're trying to build?"  
  
"The king has commanded me to build a boat that can sail over land as well as water."  
  
"Oh." The man in white said. "So why does it look like a raft with a lean to on it?"  
  
"Cause it's the only thing I knew how to build!"  
  
The mystic, for surely that's what he was, said nothing at first-no doubt marveling at the other man's vast intellect or vast something at any rate, then, as he had at their previous meetings, he said the magic words:  
  
"Well then, so be it!"  
  
He disappeared as suddenly as he had come, as silent as a shadow.  
  
For long days and nights Gourry worked tirelessly to complete his project. When he was finished he did what he was best at. He took a nap.  
  
When he awoke he found the boat he'd finished replaced by a real one, much to his relief. He climbed into it, hardly daring to hope but to his surprise the boat truly was magic! It ran across fields as well as the river!  
  
Gourry steered his boat to the palace, his stomach already growling in anticipation of the succulent roasts they would serve him.  
  
To the utter astonishment of the whole court, Gourry showed them what his extraordinary boat could do. Of course, while baffled that this simple country bumpkin could have built such a thing, the king saw its merit and immediately confiscated it. However, once again, he did not keep the promise he had made. A fact that did not go unnoticed by his daughter, the chief advisor of Justice on his council, though she did not say anything, not wanting to believe that her own daddy could be unjust.  
  
"This is all very well!" he said. "But it is not enough, if you want to earn that food you must bring me one of the griffin's feathers!"  
  
A shocked gasp ran through the assembled company, and one woman was heard to utter an oath to a non-existent mazoku. Everyone knew that the griffin was a legendary animal that was impossible to approach since it hated all men. It was half eagle and half lion, lived in a remote corner of the world away from intruders. Nobody had ever even been near it!  
  
It was with a heavy heart and empty stomach that Gourry left the court. Lost in thought.er.I mean lack thereof.  
  
Just then, the man in white sprang up besides him. He showed Gourry the road that led to the place where the monstrous bird lived and provided him with a pack of food for the travel. Before Gourry could thank him and ask his name, the other man had vanished.  
  
Gourry traveled many days and weeks finally reaching the griffin's lair. The strange bird was not there.  
  
Instead, a fairy named Sylphiel who told him she was the guardian of the lair greeted Gourry. She knew the griffin better then anyone, because she had been looking after it since it was a baby.  
  
Sylphiel was a very kind-hearted fairy, and she made the young man welcome. She listened attentively to the story of his adventures.  
  
When he had finished, she looked at him pityingly.  
  
"I must warn you," she told him, "that the griffin is the most ill- tempered bird in the world. It really hates men and devours any that it comes across. But I can see that you are brave, dear Gourry so I am going to help you.  
  
She led him into her house and down a strange set of gloomy stairs. Wide-eyed Gourry stared around him.  
  
It was nothing like he'd ever seen before. A staircase filled labyrinth with corridor after corridor leading as far as the eye could see. At the end of the last passageway, they saw the light of day once more.  
  
The fairy stopped there. Turning to look at Gourry she quickly measured him with her eyes, stopping about halfway down his body until he cleared his throat and she recovered herself.  
  
She pointed to a hole in the wall and said to him, "It's narrow, but I think you'll fit into it. Hide in there and when the griffin comes back, wait for it to fall asleep. You can creep up and pluck one of its feathers."  
  
Night fell and still Gourry waited for the griffin's return. Suddenly a huge shadow blotted out the entrance to the tunnel. The bird had come home.  
  
"I SMELL HUMAN FLESH! A MAN WAS HERE! THE NERVE!" It shrieked in a piercing bellow.  
  
Gourry realized that the griffin was female and indeed very ill tempered.  
  
"A traveler who lost his way asked for directions, but he's gone now," Sylphiel told the griffon.  
  
The explanation and huge meal that the fairy provided seemed to mollify the beast and after eating it fell into a deep sleep.  
  
Gourry noted that it ate as much as him and snored twice as loudly.  
  
Gourry crept up on tiptoe to stand besides the awesome sleeping bird. Mustering up all his courage, he quickly plucked out a feather. Not stopping to see if the griffon woke, slept, or stirred in any way he very wisely beat the hastiest retreat possible.  
  
In fact, he didn't stop running till he reached the palace. He arrived in triumph brandishing the griffin's feather aloft, and the whole court cheered him. The strange woman from before claimed her non-existent mazoku was responsible for his victory.  
  
This time, the king was incapable of dreaming up any more excuses to delay the delivery of the first year's worth of food (and this is also where I diverge from the original ending of the story).  
  
The king wept silently at the thought of the bankruptcy this would cause him.  
  
Suddenly the king had a breakdown and burst out screaming at Gourry, "WHY? Why must you do this to me? This will ruin me! I wanted my daughter better, but not at the cost of my entire treasury!"  
  
"DADDY! How could you say such a thing?" The princess broke into her own set of hysterical tears.  
  
"Actually, it was I who arranged this."  
  
A new voice rang out through the court. Everyone turned to see who had spoken. The mysterious man in white stood in a window of the palace. Jumping down he landed next to Gourry and pulled back his hood.  
  
"Mr. Zelgadis!" the princess cried.  
  
"Hey! That's the man you were supposed to be engaged to!" the king pointed at him.  
  
"Yes, and I considered that a fate worse then death which is why I cast that spell on her to make her sick," he said, "It was the only way I could get out of the marriage."  
  
"But.but.but.but." the princess kept repeating the same word.  
  
"Hey Zel! I think you broke her," Gourry said pointing at the stuttering girl.  
  
"I have no problem with that," he answered.  
  
"I don't get it. If you didn't want to marry her, then why did you help me cure her?" Gourry asked.  
  
"That is a secret."  
  
"You're the mazoku who told us about the cure in the first place!" the king pointed to the purple haired demon that suddenly appeared, "What's going on here? I'm so confused."  
  
"That's rather the whole point I'm afraid. I'll keep them busy while you two make a hasty retreat," the mazoku said.  
  
"Why are you helping us?" Zelgadis asked.  
  
"Because I find this amusing."  
  
"Riiiiight," Zel grabbed Gourry by his hand and pulled him outside.  
  
"Where are we going?" the young peasant asked.  
  
"Dunno depends on where that boat I built takes us."  
  
"But didn't the king take that?"  
  
"I stole it back. Oh, and check that pack I gave you! I made sure that the king kept his promise."  
  
Gourry opened his pack and saw that it had refilled itself.  
  
"WOW! It's full of food again."  
  
"Yep, I cast a transportation spell on it. Any food in the king's kitchens will automatically be sent to your pack."  
  
Gourry was overcome with emotion. As Zel steered the boat further and further away from the palace Gourry threw himself at the other man.  
  
"You're the best Zel! Traveling with you is going to be a lot more fun then raising apples or going on pointless missions for the king!" Gourry looked up at him, "So what are we going to do first?"  
  
Zel looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "Check your pack for any chocolate syrup."  
  
And they lived happily ever after. 


End file.
